The frequency of micronuclei resulting from chromosome breaks, and that of micronuclei deriving from spindle disturbances was determined in exfoliated cells of the human buccal mucosa in 50 normal individuals. Several confounding factors, such as age, smoking habits, alcohol consumption, etc., were taken into account. While the frequencies of micronuclei resulting from chromosome breaks and of cells with this kind of micronuclei were about double in smokers as compared with non-smokers, the difference being highly statistically significant, the frequencies of cells with spindle disturbances were almost the same in the two groups. No statistically significant correlation was found for any of the other variables examined. In two patients suffering from cancer of the oral cavity the variation of the frequency of the micronuclei during the progress of radiotherapy and following its interruption was determined. It was found that gamma rays induced only micronuclei resulting from chromosome breaks, whose frequency increased linearly with the applied dose, and was lowered to the initial background level 7-12 days after the end of radiotherapy.
Summary.-The cytotoxic effects of hexavalent (K2Cr2O7) and trivalent (CrCl3) chromium compounds have been studied in cultured hamster fibroblasts (BHK line) and human epithelial-like cells (HEp line HEp cells turned out to be more sensitive to K2Cr2O7 than BHK fibroblasts: in the former line TdR uptake is less stimulated, DNA synthesis and cell survival are more affected. Survival of BHK cells to K2Cr2O7 indicates a multi-hit mechanism of cell inactivation, the extrapolation number being about 10.On the basis of quantitative Cr determinations in the treatment solutions and in the treated cells, the cytotoxic effects of Cr are attributed to the action of Cr6+ at the plasma membrane level on the mechanisms involved in nucleoside uptake, and to the interaction of Cr3+ at the intracellular level with nucleophilic targets on the DNA molecule.
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